If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Threaded View

Buddhist Geeks: Are You Choosing to Die Already?

I found this post on Buddhist Geeks blog while downloading the shikintaza podcast Jundo pointed out in another thread (haven't heard that yet). This blog post certainly rang true for me. It's short (maybe a page). Here's a taste:

The Choosing to Die Syndrome - what is it? Itís the slow accumulation of decisions towards a fixed identity and away from the fresh aliveness of your life. Itís giving in to the prevailing views of what life is about, and the building up of habits and defenses that maintain those views. Itís the murder of curiosity, and the killing off of exploration. Itís the embracing of certain certainties in order to soothe the pain of living in an ever changing world.

It's hard to look at your own life and decide whether this is what you have been doing (for most of that life). I think I have spent my life exploring, but exploring based on a fixed set of "prevailing views of what life is about" - so not really exploring at all. The last year or so I think I have been starting to question those assumptions, but have not yet thrown them out (or, as Buddha would recommend, believing only those which I personally experience). Sure makes the coming years seem exciting. And, most amazing to me (a conservative, analytic), it doesn't feel like it matters if I am "right" or "wrong" - just exploring.